Argues for an informational processing explanation for young infants' ability to use featural cues to differentiate objects, centering on the development of infants' ability to integrate both featural and object information. Considers information processing propositions and evidence on object segregation. (JPB)

Discusses connections between infants' use of object knowledge in recognition to computational, psychophysical, and neurophysiological research on adult perceptual segmentation and grouping. Considers these connections through a framework of the tasks and information involved in adult object segregation, and interprets Needham's results in this…

Discusses responses to Needham's research on infants' use of featural, physical and experiential information to segregate displays. Considers characterization of different kinds of information infants use when segregating objects. Discusses relations between processes underlying object segregation. Considers the roles of visual versus linguistic…

Two experiments examined 8-month-olds' use of absolute and relative pitch cues in a tone-sequence statistical learning task. Results suggest that, given unsegmented stimuli that do not conform to rules of musical composition, infants are more likely to track patterns of absolute pitches than of relative pitches. A third experiment found that adult…

Explains what being a naturalist means and discusses concerns about biologists who lack an understanding of natural history. Discusses reasons for the decline in the number of naturalists and makes suggestions on how to use natural history as a teaching tool. (Contains 12 references.) (YDS)

Nine-year olds completed measures of general intelligence, visuospatial ability, and verbal fluency. Subjects were 107 Korean children and 115 British children. Found that Korean children scored higher on general intelligence and visuospatial ability and lower on verbal fluency than British children. (BC)

How learning styles (massed versus distributed practice) influence the relationship between abilities and task performance was studied with 209 undergraduates. Analysis reveals that perceptual speed contributes to performance for subjects who massed practice, whereas spatial visualization contributed for those who distributed practice.…

Reviews research on "homesign" systems, i.e., the gestural communication of deaf individuals who do not learn a spoken language and who are not exposed to a signed language. The article touches on how iconicity affects language structure and use, the role of input in language development, and the nature of the critical period for…

Suggests that in applied linguistics there has been a collective ignorance of the social constraints operating on exchanges between research interviews and informant interviewees. The article discusses literature from sociology and social psychology that has dealt with this aspect of research interviews. (Author/CK)

To examine the perceptual acquisition of Thai voice and aspiration contrasts, Canadian native English and native French speakers were taught 18 Thai words and then tested midpoint during training, on the day following training, and after one week with no exposure to Thai. Results indicated that both groups lexically represented voice contrasts…

The effect of extended, continuous exposure to frequency-altered auditory feedback during an oral reading and monologue task on the stuttering frequency and speech rate of 12 adults was examined. A significant decrease in stuttering events and an increase in number of syllables produced was found for the oral reading task but not for the monologue…

A study involving 47 Chinese managers investigated whether those who were creative in imagery were better at interpreting ambiguous figures. Results found managers who were creative in imagery were more capable in interpreting ambiguous figures and were quicker in their discoveries than managers less creative in imagery. (Contains references.)…

Discusses analysis of how members of self-help groups perceived professional involvement and dimensions of such involvement. Three categories were identified according to their main focus: groups dealing with health issues, groups dealing with alternative lifestyles, and groups based on the 12-step model. Analysis yielded two conceptually…

This study compared visual attention in 18 prelingually deaf children (half with cochlear implants and half with hearing aids) and 10 normal hearing children. Unlike previous studies, children in all three groups performed similarly on a continuous-performance visual attention task and on a letter cancellation task. Only age and nonverbal…

Focuses on aspects of spoken language skill that may contribute to the development of phonological awareness, as manifested in rhyme awareness and phoneme awareness. Examined rhyme awareness, articulation, speech perception, vocabulary, and letter and word knowledge in 40 preschool children. (Author/VWL)